Last Sunday, our congregation did two important things: we adopted an open and affirming statement that proclaims clearly that all are welcome at our church, and we revised our bylaws so that our organizational structures more accurately reflect who we are and how we do ministry together. Both items were the culmination of a lot… Read More →

Dear Friends: Scholar Willie Jennings says that joy is an “act of resistance against the forces of despair.” We’ve been talking about joy in worship on Sunday mornings and at Table Topics on Tuesday evenings, and it’s got me thinking: is joy something you feel? Or something you do? I’m intrigued by the idea that… Read More →

Dear Friends: At last Sunday’s board meeting, something happened that was both significant and mostly unremarkable: The board approved the following statement and recommended that it come before the congregation for affirmation: First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Greensboro, North Carolina is an Open and Affirming Congregation. We openly welcome persons of… Read More →

Dear Friends: Wanna hear something really fun? Our new organizational plan is almost done! Squee! (What? You have a different definition of fun?) Here’s what I’m talking about: Last year, as our long range planning team completed its work of naming a vision for our congregation, one thing quickly became abundantly clear: we would never… Read More →

Friends, In the beginning of 2018, I had the privilege of travelling to Nicaragua with the Wake Forest University School of Divinity to partner with and learn from an organization called AMOS Health and Hope. The dream for AMOS stretches back to 1967 when Dr. Gustavo Parajón saw the great need for basic healthcare in… Read More →

Dear Friends: I saw the new Star Wars movie over the holiday weekend. Even to this casual fan, it was lots of fun: Light sabers! Droids! Luke and Leia! The Millennium Falcon jumping to lightspeed! In classic Star Wars tradition, it’s an epic battle between darkness and light, with the small-but-fearless band of underdog rebels, always outnumbered but… Read More →

Friends, There’s a Facebook page I follow this time of year called “Wandering Wisemen,” which follows the fictional journey of three lost kings on their way to Bethlehem. It’s an Advent calendar of sorts, with a new post each day sharing their adventures. The kings and their camel encounter all kinds of unexpected things on the… Read More →

Friends, This is one of those odd years when the first Sunday of Advent is not the Sunday right after Thanksgiving, which means that Advent doesn’t begin until December 3. As I write, that’s more than two weeks away, and there’s a lot happening between now and then: We’ve got this weekend’s Thanksgiving festivities—including a guest speaker,… Read More →

Friends: The Corner Market, a small market with produce and handmade goods, is open every Saturday at the corner of Elam Ave. and Walker, not far from the church. There are a couple of local farmers selling everything from eggs to kale to homemade jam, as well as handmade goodies of all sorts. The market… Read More →

Dear Friends: Last Sunday, just after worship, I was standing by the front door, greeting visitors and saying goodbye to folks as they left. Other people were getting coffee and catching up with each other. A couple of kids came up to show me what they’d made in children’s church. An older man gave me… Read More →

Dear Friends, Last Sunday, we trained and commissioned our acolytes, those young leaders who light the candles in the sanctuary at the beginning of worship and then extinguish them at the end. I’m proud of these kids, who take this responsibility seriously and do it well. As I often tell them, they have an important… Read More →

Friends: Newsletter, September 6, 2017Several years ago, on a trip with my family to northern Minnesota, we stopped to visit a lighthouse perched high on a cliff along Lake Superior. The Split Rock lighthouse has stood for over a century, warning ships traveling through dark and icy waters of the treacherous rocks along the shore…. Read More →

Friends, Yesterday, our ministry and program staff spent the morning together in a planning retreat. We prayed, laughed, told stories, planned, and got to know each other better. I’m delighted to be working with such capable, creative, and collaborative colleagues. (Alliteration!) I’m especially pleased to introduce you to Paul Snyder, a second-year ministry student at… Read More →

Dear friends: How wonderful to be back with you after several weeks away this summer. Thank you again to Melissa Guthrie Loy for her able leadership in my absence, as well as to the Elders and the Care Team, and all who pitched in to help. You all have been busy while I was gone!… Read More →

Friends, Even during the hot summer months, the church is at work. Even across regional boundaries and international borders, the church is at work. Even in different languages, the church is at work. My experience at the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) General Assembly has me reeling with energy (but also lingering exhaustion—I have a… Read More →

This note is from our Director of Congregational Life “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, in love God made them all…” Friends, We’ll sing that refrain throughout the month of July as we look at wisdom literature. We’ll spend time looking at Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and… Read More →

Friends: There were bubbles. And balloons. There was the rush of a mighty wind. There were tongues of fire. And hot dogs. And a giant slide. And cake. And communion. There were voices from the past and new friends in the present. There were gifts and hopes and promises for the future. We sang. We… Read More →

Dear friends, There were several new RSVPs in the mail this morning, indicating that our anniversary celebration on June 3 and 4 is going to be a very big deal indeed! As someone remarked to me recently, we’ve been planning for this anniversary for so long, it’s hard to believe it’s really finally here. A… Read More →

Friends, Last weekend, I spent a couple of days in Chicago at the Disciples Divinity House. You’ve probably heard me talk about DDH before—I’m an alum, and I serve on the board, and we’ve hosted two interns from DDH in recent years. In fact, I got to see both Judith and Thandiwe while I was… Read More →

What are we to make of the Easter story? Perhaps just this: That God continues to surprise us with the sunrise and the colors of creation and the empty tomb and the grace-filled waters of baptism and the way of Jesus that always finds a way. Friends, this is the good news we proclaim today… Read More →

Friends: I was Number 88. The woman beside me, Number 89, smiled at me as she sat down. She didn’t speak much English and I don’t speak much Spanish, but we muddled through introductions. Her English was far better than my Spanish. I asked how long she’d lived in Greensboro. Ten years, she said. Longer… Read More →

Friends: Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to God with songs of praise! These are the words from the Psalmist that call us into worship during this season of Lent. When you think about it, it’s quite an invitation: to bring our praise and our gratitude before… Read More →

Dear Friends, Many of you probably don’t know this, but almost five years ago I spent 11 months traveling to 11 different countries to share the Christian gospel with people all over the world. This experience aligned perfectly with my childhood faith, since I was raised in an Evangelical church that prioritized evangelism and conversion…. Read More →

Dear friends, To say that we are living in politically complicated times would be a bit of an understatement, don’t you think? First Christian is, to use an increasingly popular term, a purple church. That is, some of us voted blue, some of us voted red. (Of course, some of us voted some other color… Read More →

Friends, What one statement do you know to be true? On what do you stand? I stand on love. God is love. 1 John 4:8 says this. (I’d argue the entire biblical canon says God is love.) Love. Love. Love. “That’s what it’s all about,” sings my subconscious. “’Cause God loves us we love each… Read More →

Dear friends: On the way out of church on Sunday, one of you said to me: “After the year we’ve had, I need Christmas more than ever.” We’d just had a particularly joy-filled worship—we lit the “Joy” candle on the Advent wreath, watched a silly but lovely video of the Christmas story from the always… Read More →